Jammu: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday alleged that those “getting killed in the (forces’) firing in Kashmir were being dubbed as OGWs (Over Ground Workers) due to lack of accountability and impunity available under the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA).”
PDP president was leading a protest demonstration of party workers outside PDP office in Jammu against killings of civilians in Kashmir and demanding a probe into the Hyderpora encounter.
She also demanded that the bodies of those killed in the encounter should be handed over to the families protesting in Kashmir.
“The families of those killed in (Hyderpora) encounter are protesting in Srinagar in Press Colony (Enclave), demanding handing over of (their kin’s) bodies. The government is not handing over the bodies to the families even for their last rites,” she stated while responding to media queries.
“If they were already having evidence (against those killed), why were they not caught earlier. Why did they not arrest them earlier in a situation where they (security agencies) put the people behind the bars even for no reason and that too with impunity almost on a daily basis. Now the protesting families were being deprived of their right to perform last rites of their kin,” Mehbooba alleged answering a query about the IGP Kashmir’s claim that they had digital evidence against those killed.
At this point, she also referred to the Shopian encounter of July last year claiming that similar claims of having evidence against those killed were made that time. “Ditto happened in the case of Athar Mushtaq. They were not having evidence. Still they don’t have,” she further alleged while referring to the killing of a Class 11th student along with two other youth in January this year in Srinagar.
Earlier, she led the party workers protesting holding placards “Stop killing us, probe Hyderpora killings.
However, the police erected concertina wires to prevent them from moving to the main road.
In yet another engagement before winding up her five-day tour to Jammu, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti addressed an interaction programme with lawyers of Jammu. She said that Kashmir was drifting away due to continuous hostilities adopted by current dispensation.
She called for collective and unified efforts to bring a strong bond between the two regions of erstwhile state.